Case Studies

Working in collaboration brings new opportunities and benefits for NHS trusts and partners. Read more about successful partnerships in the case studies below.

NHS chief executives, managers and staff representatives who have taken a partnership approach believe the benefits and opportunities they provide are immeasurable. With partnership, all parts of an organisation can come together to meet challenges, and pull together to meet agreed goals.

Read more about how employers and trade unions have worked in partnership to deliver initiatives across the NHS

We are keen to include examples of good partnership working from regional and local SPFs on our website. If you have examples of good practice or case studies that you think would be useful to share with SPF colleagues, please send details in an email marked ‘good practice’ to: webenquiries@socialpartnershipforum.org.

Read about the ‘See Something, Say Something’ campaign that has been developed in partnership at Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, with the aim of giving staff the tools and language to empower them to challenge poor behaviour and to tackle low level concerns.

The Cultural Ambassadors project aimed to improve the experience of staff during the employee relations process, and reduce the number of BME staff being investigated or disciplined inappropriately. This project was developed in partnership by Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust and Royal College of Nursing.

Liverpool CCG worked in partnership with North West Trade Union Congress Unionlearn to deliver a project to help service users, who were uncomfortable using information technology, to improve their skills so they could access online services, such as those related to healthcare.

Read about management side and trade unions at University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, who worked in partnership to improve their disciplinary process for the benefit of staff, management and ultimately patients.

Read how employers and Trade Unions at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn NHS Foundation Trust worked in partnership to develop workshops to help staff gain a better awareness and understanding of dementia.

Read what Simon Hart HRD at Oxleas Trust has to say on how the development of a new partnership working approach at Oxleas has laid the basis for their success in staff engagement, and listen to what Dino Williams Unison Branch Secretary at Guys and St Thomas has to say in this podcast about the development of partnership working from a staff side perspective at Guys and St Thomas.

Overcoming challenges together to enable better outcomes for all is the ultimate goal of partnership working. Find out how York and Scarborough Hospitals came together to form York Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in this case study.

In preparation for the establishment of CCGs in Suffolk and the transfer of NHS Suffolk staff to these new employers, a work stream was initiated to embed partnership working and develop it to meet the needs of the parties within the CCGs.

Bradford District Care Trust won the 2012 HPMA partnership award for actively engaging with staff, their trade unions, and service users to transfer learning disability services to six third sector and private organisations.